Central Coast Mariners suffered their first defeat since round 12 of the Hyundai A-League, after surrendering a one-goal advantage to ultimately slip up at the weekend.

The Mariners were coming off a seven-week streak without losing, whilst the Gold Coast were aiming to bounce back from a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Melbourne.

Mariners Manager Lawrie McKinna admits the three points were there for the taking, after leading for so long:

"Speaking to the boys after the game, we felt like we were in full control and under no pressure whatsoever."

Central Coast took the lead five minutes before the break. Michael McGlinchey won a corner and took the set piece quickly, his short ball to former Blade Nicky Travis was looped toward the back post and Matt Simon showed great strength to shrug off Kristian Rees and fire a header inside the far post.

The lead was held until the 69th minute when things quickly turned sour for McKinna's men, as Zenon Caravella played a good ball for Andrew Barisic, who beat his man to take the ball to the byline and deliver a cross which was headed home by Shane Smeltz at the back post.

The hosts then took the lead, less than ten minutes later, when a Dean Heffernan pass was intercepted by Smeltz. The New Zealand international laid off for Jason Culina, whose shot was saved by goalkeeper Danny Vukovic only for Barisic to tuck away the loose ball.

"Everything we wanted to do well we did, the only thing we could have done when we had them in the second half and were comfortable was be a little bit more ruthless," said McKinna. "We were very comfortable with the ball instead of maybe going for it.

"On another night we could have gone on and won two or three nil quite comfortably, but it's a cruel game sometimes."